Throughout Paulís letter to the
Philippians we have seen his emphasis on the humility that is so foundational
to a churchís unity. Indeed, without genuine and heartfelt humility there
simply cannot exist the kind of unity in a church that honors and glorifies
God. Let there be no mistaking the fact that it is entirely possible for unity
to exist without a trace of humility. A professional sports team, for example,
can exhibit the kind of team unity that vaults them to a world championship. But
is there any real humility associated with such a feat? Not likely. So, too,
there are churches which have banded together and are exhibiting great unity. And
as a result of their unity they are experiencing astounding growth. But at what
price? What that church is like-minded about, and what they are in agreement
about, has nothing to do with the spiritual humility that so pleases God. No,
what Paul urged wasnít just unity. He had seen and experienced, during the
course of his own lifetime, great unity among the Pharisees, himself having
been a Pharisee. But, oh, how wicked such unity can be when it is not the
product of profound humility. For, let us never forget, God resists the proud
and gives grace to the humble.[1]
And what is oftentimes found to be an integral part of the lives of Christians
who are, indeed, humble? In addition to humility being a prerequisite to unity
in a church, humility is also a precursor to effectual prayer. And does this
not make perfect sense, when you think about it? The proud man believes he can
live his life without the intervention of God in answer to prayer. He doesnít
need Godís wisdom. He doesnít need Godís power. He doesnít need insight from
God, either, because he is quite self-sufficient. For the humble believer,
however, prayer comes much easier. Needing no convincing that he is helpless
and needy, the child of God looks to God as his ever-present help in time of
need.

We recently examined Paulís directive
to the Philippians, with their concern about Paulís Roman imprisonment and with
the dark clouds of persecution gathering over them, to ďBe careful for
nothing.Ē Sinful anxiety has no proper place in the Christian life. We also
took a look at what should be done instead of worrying about things you cannot
control. What you should not do, then, is fret and be anxious. What you should
do is pray. But what benefit is there to prayer? The most obvious benefits to
praying to God are answers to prayer. In James 4.2 we are informed that we have
not because we ask not. There are some blessings that God will bestow on His
people only in answer to their direct requests for those blessings. But are
there other benefits to prayer besides getting your prayers answered?

In our text for today, Philippians
4.7, Paul explains an added benefit to the Christianís prayer. And itís a
benefit that is quite different than most Christians think it is from reading
this verse. Letís stand and read it together, and then Iíll show you what I
mean. Or should I say, Iíll show you what Paul means?

ďAnd the peace
of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus.Ē

Prayer to God results in protection
from God by the peace of God.

There are three important concepts we
need to strive to be clear about in this verse:

First, LETíS BE CLEAR ABOUT THE PEACE
OF GOD

Iíll bet you have always thought, when
you read this verse, or when you heard someone preach on this verse, that the
peace of God referred to here is that feeling inside of serenity and tranquility
that comes when you conclude things are right between you and God. That is not
what the phrase ďthe peace of GodĒ means.

Let
me contrast ďthe peace of GodĒ with three other kinds of peace in scripture. Turn
in your Bible to Romans 5.10:

ďFor
if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.Ē

Here is a shocking reference by Paul
to his relationship with God before his conversion. Imagine Saul of Tarsus, a
strictly observant and religious Jew actually being the enemy of God! He didnít
imagine himself to be the enemy of God at that time in his life. But he was
Godís enemy, just as surely as you are Godís enemy if you are not saved. Now
turn to Romans 5.1:

ďTherefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.Ē

Through faith in Jesus Christ the
believer has peace with God. Understand, peace with God is not something you
experience. Itís not something you feel. Itís a judicial decree of God that
arises from the saving work of Jesus Christ. When a sinner comes to Christ by
faith and receives the forgiveness of his sins, Godís holy and righteous demands
for satisfaction are met by the Lord Jesus Christ for that sinner, and where
there was war, a state of peace now exists between the sinner and God. Peace
with God is the first thing brought about by Jesus Christ for the sinner who
comes to Him. Finally, turn to Galatians 5.22:

Whereas peace with God
is an objective fact that is not felt or experienced, but is so because Godís
Word says it is so, this second kind of peace which is the result of the Holy
Spiritís unencumbered indwelling presence in the life of the believer is very
much felt. When people talk about the inner tranquility of the soul and
serenity in their thoughts, it is this peace they are referring to. One might
call this the peace of the Spirit of God. A third kind of spiritual peace, and
another kind of peace which is actually felt by the Christian, is found in
First Thessalonians 5.13:

ďAnd
to esteem them very highly in love for their workís sake. And be at
peace among yourselves.Ē

This is the peace that exists between
members of a congregation, when they actually get along with each other and
refrain from quarreling. And how does this peace come to be experienced? Read
verses 12 and 13:

12 And
we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you
in the Lord, and admonish you;

13 And
to esteem them very highly in love for their workís sake. And be at
peace among yourselves.Ē

When you have a right relationship
with your pastor, when you esteem him very highly in love for the workís sake,
then you will get along with each other and experience this third kind of
peace. You might call this the pastoral peace.

Let
us now consider the peace of God referred to by Paul in Philippians 4.7. First,
let me state that the peace with God in Romans 5.1 is the result of being
justified through faith in Christ. The peace of the Spirit of God is the result
of the indwelling of Godís Spirit in the life of the believer. The pastoral
peace is also a result; a result of a right relationship with Godís spiritual
leader in the church. The peace of God, however, is not the result of anything. The peace of God just is. You
see, the peace of God is actually an attribute of God. Itís one of those
qualities which makes God Who and what He is. As God is love and as God has the
attributes of omnipotence and omniscience, so also does God have the attribute
of peace. He is not ruffled, disturbed, worried, or anxious about anything. He
is God, and there is peace in His being. What Paul is referring to here, then,
is not anything that is the result of what God or anyone else does. This peace
is the result, if thatís the right word to use, of what God is by nature and essence.
We have seen, then, four kinds of peace. There is peace that is experienced by
members of a congregation. There is peace that is experienced by a believer as
a direct result of the indwelling Spirit of God. There is the peace with God
that is the result of being justified, which is not felt or experienced, but is
just as certainly real as anything else that is true. And, in this verse we
have before us today, there is the peace of God. This is Godís peace. This is
what He senses, experiences, and feels as a result of Who He is. And letís not
forget: This peace of God? It is something ďwhich passeth understanding.Ē Which
is to say that it is beyond our capacity to comprehend. Consider it. Ponder it.
But do not expect to be able to grasp or understand it.

Second, LETíS BE CLEAR ABOUT THE
PROTECTION OF BELIEVERS

ďAnd
the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and
mindsĒ

The peace of God will do something to
your hearts and minds when you pray. Specifically, the peace of God will keep
your hearts and mind. To keep is to stand guard and protect, to stand guard and
control, to stand guard at the entrance of a city gate. The peace of God, then,
is the gatekeeper for your heart and mind. But what is your heart and what is
your mind, in this verse?

To
the Jewish mind, and Paul is after all a Jewish man inspired to pen these
words, the heart is the center of a man.[2]
The heart is the place from which your thoughts originate. The heart is the
place from which your affections flow. Remember, from Romans 10.10, that it is
ďwith the heart man believeth unto righteousness.Ē So, to guard the manís heart
is to guard the essence of the man. If you pray Godís peace will keep your
heart. If you pray Godís peace will guard your heart. And critical it is to
control access to your heart.

But
thatís not all the peace of God stands guard over and protects. The peace of
God also keeps your mind. The Greek word translated mind here is not the normal
word for mind.[3]
This word refers to the product of the mind, which are thoughts and the acts of
the will which proceed from the heart. So, the peace of God, as a result of
your prayer life, keeps not only your heart, but also keeps your thoughts, protects
your thoughts, and guards your thoughts. My friends, where is the battlefield
on which the Christian warfare is waged? Is it not the thought life of the
believer? You see, then, how crucial prayer is to provide for you this
unforeseen benefit, the guarding and the protecting by the peace of God of your
heart and of your mind.

No
word means this and only this or that and only that. Every word in every
language characteristically has a range of meaning that is dependent upon the
context in which the word is used. For example: The word ďcoolĒ can mean
anything from having a relatively low temperature to being synonymous with the
word wonderful. Such is the case in the Greek language and the phrase ďthrough
Christ JesusĒ possesses a word with just such a range of meanings. You see, the
word ďthroughĒ is usually translated ďin,Ē which would give to us the phrase,
ďin Christ Jesus.Ē

I
bring this to your attention only to point out that all of these benefits, from
being able to pray effectually to God, to having the peace of God actually keep
your hearts and minds, occurs only in the lives of those who are actually saved
and positionally in Christ. If you are not saved you are not in Christ. If you
are not saved you will not experience pastoral peace or the peace of the Spirit
of God. Peace with God will not be yours if you are not saved. And if you are
not saved the peace of God, Godís own divine attribute of serenity and tranquility,
will not keep your heart or your mind when you pray.

Hey,
no wonder saved people like to pray. No wonder saved people do pray. No wonder
saved people are willing to come to prayer meetings. This peace of God keeping
your heart and mind is a wonderful thing. Now, perhaps the child of God doesnít
consciously know what happens when he prays that is so delightful to his heart
and mind, but he knows something happens. There is benefit from praying to God
that comes from something other than answer to prayer, that comes from
something other than humbling yourself before God. Itís Godís Own peace moving
into an area of your life during and after prayer, to keep watch over you, to
protect you, to safeguard your heart and your mind. And donít tell me that the
peace of God keeping a manís heart and mind doesnít affect him. I know better. And
the Bible says so.

So,
if you pray to God you will receive protection that comes from God by the peace
of God. And some people will try to pay money to a psychiatrist so they can
sleep at night. Nuts.

SERMON:

We
have looked quite briefly at four kinds of peace found in scripture. Two of
those kinds of peace are felt, are experienced.

What
I have called pastoral peace is a peace that is enjoyed. When there is a right
relationship between the pastor and the people the people, in turn, get along
with each other. But when there is not a right relationship, when there is a
failure to very highly esteem him in love for the workís sake, the Bible
predicts that you will not get along with each other to experience and enjoy
peace among yourselves. And this is reasonable. For example: Should you
continue a friendship with someone who has demonstrated disloyalty, who has
been unfaithful in leaving the church, or who has in some other way sought to
harm the pastorís lifeís work, you place yourself in conflict with others in
the church who are doing right. Peace cannot then exist between you and them
until you either leave (which is wrong), or sever your irresponsible friendship
(which is right). Pastoral peace. Itís experienced, and itís important to a
church.

Next,
there is what I call the peace of Godís Spirit. This peace, which is also felt,
is the direct result of the indwelling ministry of the Spirit of God. Accompanying
this peace is joy and love and goodness, and all the rest that goes along with
the Spirit of Godís work in a child of Godís life.

Third,
there is the peace of God. This is what Philippians 4.7 deals with. This is the
attribute of God. It is His unalterable and immutable peace. This peace is a
direct reflection of the fact that God, each of the three persons of the
Trinity, are not in conflict with each other, but quite the contrary. The
godhead is absolutely like-minded and in such united harmony as cannot be
imagined by such creatures as ourselves. Since this is Godís Own peace it is
not experienced by us, but the effect of Godís peace can be felt when, in the
course of prayer, the believerís heart and mind is kept by Godís peace.

Finally,
there is peace with God. I suppose peace with God is most important to human
beings because of the four that we have dealt with this is the peace that is
least felt or the least perceived. And with regard to our eternal destiny, this
is the peace which is most important to us.

Four
points need to be made with regard to peace with God this evening:

First, THE CONDITION OF PEACE WITH GOD

Sometimes
when dealing with such issues as war and peace, we sell short the notion of
what real peace is. To avoid doing this, let us remember that God means what He
says and He says what He means, both by direct revelation to chosen men past
times, as well as by means of His infallible Word, the Bible.

When
Lucifer was cast down because of his rebellion against God a spiritual war
began. I say it was a spiritual war because it was a war between spiritual
beings, the true and living God on one hand, in conflict against Lucifer and
that portion of the angelic host that aligned with him in revolt against God on
the other hand. Then one day, Lucifer succeeded in his plot to overthrow the
rule of God in the life of Adam, the first man and the head of the human race. Luciferís
success did not alter in any way the outcome of the spiritual war, since the
purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His Own will had, in
fact, incorporated Adamís fall into His plan for the ages. Nevertheless, when
it occurred it created a breach between Adam and His Creator that had not
existed before, and it enlisted Adam and his descendants into an alliance with
Lucifer (now known as Satan) against the rule of God. The spiritual war had
widened, with mankind now fully but unwittingly participating. I say
unwittingly because none of this is recognized by sinful men because human beings
are most consciously physical beings, and almost unconsciously do you have a
spiritual side. But have a spiritual side you do. And the spiritual component
of your existence is immoral, is ungodly, is wicked, is contaminated, and most
important to our present discussion, is in total rebellion against God.

My
friend, because so much that is physical and sensory dominates your existence,
you may be quite unaware of the reality that exists between you and God, but He
is most aware of that reality. And what is that reality? That reality is that
you are Godís enemy. Romans 5.10 leaves no doubt about that issue. You are not
Godís ally. And even if you choose to deny that you are Godís enemy, recognize
that it is nevertheless true. Peace with God, then, is something that is
wonderful and blessed. Peace with God is more than just a cessation of
hostilities, such as has existed between North and South Korea, and such as
exists between China and Taiwan, and such as existed for decades between the
United States and the Soviet Union. Oh, no. Peace with God means all is
forgiven. Peace with God means that justice is satisfied. Peace with God means
that holiness is vindicated. Peace with God means that two who were at one time
adversaries are now allies. Peace with God means that whereas the destruction
of the other and His cause was once sought, such a goal exists no more. Now,
with peace, each seeks the advance of the otherís cause. I seek Godís glory
while God bestows upon me His blessings.

Peace
with God is not felt. It is not experienced in the strictest sense of what it
means to experience something. But the peace of God is real and wonderful and
prized. It bespeaks the most important relationship a human being can possibly have.
More important than parent to child or husband to wife. More important than
patriot to country or soldier to flag. This is the relationship of creature to
his Creator. And when there is peace with God that relationship is right.

Next, THE CAUSE OF PEACE WITH GOD

When
you were conceived you were conceived in sin. You have been by nature a sinful
person since your beginning. And unless something dramatic happens to bring
about peace between you and your God, you will someday die and begin to suffer
the wrath of your God throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity. All of this
because the presence of sin results in the absence of peace.

Now,
we know that in the case of some sinners peace breaks out in the midst of their
war with God. But what causes such peace to reign with God? What brings it
about? What is the cause of it all? Writing to Christians about their former
lives, lost and without hope, and describing for them how they who were afar
off have now been brought close to God by the blood of Christ, Paul says this
about Jesus Christ in Ephesians 2.14:

ďfor
he is our peace.Ē

My friend, Jesus Christ is the cause
of peace with God. Without Jesus Christ there is no peace, because without Him,
and the cleansing power of His shed blood, that which creates the conflict,
that which antagonizes God, your sin, is ever present.

Romans
5.1 reinforces this truth:

ďTherefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.Ē

Setting aside for a moment what the
word justification means, the point that I seek to emphasize right now is that
Jesus Christ, Who He is and what He did when He shed His blood for the
remission of sins, is the reason a person who has peace with God has peace with
God. Through Jesus there is peace with God. Without Jesus there is no peace
with God. Itís that simple. Jesus Christ is the cause of peace because the
blood of Jesus Christ washes the sin away.

Third, THE CONSEQUENCE OF PEACE WITH
GOD

With
sin there is no peace. With peace there is no sin. At least there is no sin
that God hasnít forgiven, there is no sin that Jesus Christ hasnít cleansed
with His blood, there is no sin that hasnít been forgotten by God. So, when
there is peace there is nothing between you and your God except Jesus the
mediator, who reconciles you to God and brings you to God. And with peace there
is nothing to prevent you from coming to the throne of grace to pray to God, to
seek His face, to worship Him, to honor Him, to adore Him, to praise Him.

And
in the end, with peace, there is nothing that stands in the way of Godís holy
angels escorting your immortal soul into His presence in heaven when your life
on earth is done. But since you do not know Jesus, whom to know is life
eternal, since you do not therefore have the cause of peace, neither will you
enjoy the consequence of peace. Heaven is not your home. And an eternity with
God in heaven is not your eternal destiny.

Finally, THE CONTRAST OF PEACE WITH
GOD

There
are only two types of status to be enjoyed or endured with respect to God. You
are either at peace with God or you are at war with God. You are either His
friend or you are His enemy. You are either for Him or you are against Him. You
are either reconciled to Him or you are in rebellion against Him. You are
either alive as a partaker of His divine nature or you are dead in trespasses
and sins.

Most
people, when they think of this thing called salvation, think only of either going
to Hell when you die or going to heaven when you die. But Iím here to tell you
that there is far more to it than what happens at the end of your life. Itís
whatís happening while you are living your so-called life. Do you worship God? Do
you adore God? Do you consciously seek to glorify God? Do you live for God? Do
you love God? And what I mean by that is, do you obey God? Or do you sin
against Him? Do you trespass against His commandments? Do you love yourself
more than you love God? You see, when you commit sins you are actively warring
against Almighty God. When you disobey His Word you are violating the One who
said, ďBe ye holy for I am holy.Ē

Now,
you may honestly think that you are not Godís enemy. You may think that
everything is pretty good between you and God. But understand, if you are not
at peace with God you are then at war with God. I close with two passages that
may be familiar to you. But I hope that as I read them this time you will see
that they describe the behavior of someone who is not at peace with God,
someone whose destiny is eternal damnation, someone who is Godís enemy:

First
Corinthians 6.9-10: 9 Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind,

Second Timothy 3.1-7: 1 This
know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous,
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more
than lovers of God;

5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power
thereof: from such turn away.

6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and
lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of
the truth.

Only
if you have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ will you ever truly
experience the peace of the Spirit of God, or will you ever benefit from the
protection of your heart and mind by the peace of God.

I
have set before you the condition of peace with God, the cause of peace with
God, the consequence of peace with God, and a contrast of the peace with God.

I
close with this: You have no joy. You have no meaning for living. You have no
cause but self. And at the bottom of it all you have no peace with the one Who
created you. You see, you are at odds with your Creator. Until that issue is
settled nothing is settled. Until you have peace with God you will never have
peace, not real peace. The prescription for what ails you, my friend, the
remedy for your sin, is the Prince of Peace. You need Jesus.